Tuesday, December 27, 2011

New Cats in Town

The long awaited new Caterpillar trucks are at the local dealer now, and a selection are on view out front, complete with dump boxes, fifth wheels, etc.,

Designated by Cat as a vocational truck (which means construction, trash hauling, transit mix and flatbed trailer work and just about everything else except maybe long distance over the road work) they certainly look the part of heavy duty trucks.

With the recent demise of Sterling, one had to wonder if there was room for another truck brand in the North American market.

The competition as I see it:

Volvo - has own engines, and has Mack as its vocational arm.

Daimler/Freightliner has Western Star with its vocational line, and has its own engines.

International has all sorts of model lines and its own engines, but is apparently somehow tied into the Cat truck.

PACCAR (Kenworth/Peterbilt) have their own vocational lines too and use Cat or Cummins engines as the customers requests.

Aside from some small independents, that is really it. Cat has a huge dealership network already and seem to be well placed to make a mark.